In Act II, scene iii, Friar is speaking of the power of
plants when he notes that the plant has several powers. Plants can be medicinal, and
they can be poisonous. As he finishes he uses a metaphor that foreshadows the death of
lovers as they are products of kings:
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Two such opposed kings encamp them
still
In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will;
And where the
worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that
plant.
Later, in scene iv,
Mercutio and Benvolio are talking about Romeo when Mercutio notes that Romeo's love for
Rosaline is killing him. Little does Mercutio know that Romoe's love is not for
Rosaline, but for Juliet, and that her love will literally kill
him:
Alas poor
Romeo! he is already dead; stabbed with a
white wench's black eye; shot
through the ear with a
love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with
the
blind bow-boy's
butt-shaft
Mercutio uses
language figuratively here as hyperbole or exaggeration, but the foreshadow is clear.
Love will kill Romeo.
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